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This latest work centers on characters seeking fresh starts, struggling to escape substance abuse or abusive marriages, only to witness hope devolve into conflict. Kraus often employs the phrase "clean slate", making it intentionally weary through recurring use. Examples include "He aimed to start over" and "They opted for a clean break" appear throughout the narrative. Meanwhile, the author herself is embarking on her personal new beginning, because this seems a novel form of writing – documentarian, truly literary. Yet it turns out to be laden with the recurring issues and aesthetics as her previous works.

From Unplanned Author to Cult Classic

The writer was originally an creative who transitioned to writing unintentionally with her 1997 seminal work I Love Dick, made up of letters to an unreceptive lover, elevating personal female narrative from self-debasement into defiance. She continued writing, but the next trio of fascinating and rebarbative novels lacked the shock and immediacy that the epistolary style imparted to the tone of I Love Dick. Compounding this was her role as a nonconformist creator who had evolved into a major property owner, so there was significant attention on real estate deals. It is logical that she presently aims to try out new kinds of material, looking outwards to other people's stories, at a moment when she claims that Trumpian politics makes confessional writing unnecessary.

Three Generations, Shared Inescapable History

The Four Spent the Day Together is divided into three sections, encompassing multiple eras – each trapped by their backgrounds. We encounter the narrative about Emma and Jasper, based on Kraus's parents, moving from the New York borough to a pastoral setting. Additionally the story of Kraus herself, in the character of a figure named Catt Greene, reckoning with the late recognition of I Love Dick, the emergence of Trump, and her substance-dependent spouse her husband Paul. Finally the account of a killing of one troubled youth by another in a locality largely deserted by forward-thinking policies only 80 miles from Catt's cottage in rural Minnesota.

As a reader attracted to honed writing of the kind the author herself typically rejects, I was seduced by the literary tone of the initial segment.

Being a reader drawn to crafted language of the kind that the author often disregards, I was won over by the storytelling approach of the first section. It exhibits a fresh level of observation that allows space for trivial aspects, like the pail that the youthful Catt pries out of frozen water at the start of the story, helped by her beloved father. "I discovered a frozen plaything!" she says; "a great plaything", he responds, "the elliptical meanings of words rolling around in their mouths like hard candy". Kraus writes the tale of Emma with curiosity and intimacy. "It seemed to Emma she had entered a dream – not hers, exactly."

Frustration and Disruption

I was bound to become frustrated when I hoped this fresh tone could last out the book. The author states here that she is annoyed by the pleasure audiences such as myself have taken from I Love Dick; she's devoted to disruption, to the messy artistic approach she has in common with her hero Kathy Acker, and the blankness and repetitiveness of her previous novels comes back in the middle section. Catt Greene is trying to renovate 36 run-down apartments in the city's most challenging districts while traveling between the Midwest and the West Coast, unable to aid Paul curb his addiction. She is overwhelmed as Paul transitions between poorly supported positions as an substance abuse counselor in a society driven by the rage and anxiety that powers Trump's victory. There are several pages about the protagonist facing cancellation on a platform, her listed profession modified from "writer" to "landlord" on Wikipedia. Kraus still seems to be overly concerned about this. On one occasion she states that she's researching the homicide so that before departing the state, "she might be able to learn something about an the nation that her Twitter detractors would fail to comprehend, would overlook entirely".

The Homicide Account

So then we come to the homicide in question – and the eponymous day spent by the murdered individual with the killer and his associates. The author possesses compelling foundational content, and details moment by moment what occurred as a man named Brandon came to see Brittney after meeting her on an app where she marketed explicit images. He was hoping for sex but appears congenially to have passed the day with her companions, wandering about fixing his automobile and covering the cost of food and substances, before being shot by her romantic interest a man named Micah – a young, mentally ill man who has repeatedly received inpatient care for violent rage.

Obsession and Unfinished Business

Catt gets obsessed by the account, and I found myself captivated by the way that the author's conflicting impulses towards ethical reporting and reckless transgression wrestle in this part. However, I would have preferred her to go further into her own obsessions here. The compelling persona is Brittney, who comes alive in part due to the protagonist's connection to her – yet another intelligent, harassed young woman going off the rails in a difficult, overlooked locality. Kraus notes that the protagonist communicates with Brittney in detention, but she omits the dramatization of these talks. This entire part feels curiously unresolved, to the extent that the author's storytelling ends almost mid-par